


Why Wolf And Coyote Hunt Together

by gardnerhill



Series: Tales From Wind-Goes-Through-It Lodge [1]
Category: due South
Genre: Alternate Universe - Animals, Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Folklore, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 21:12:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16668376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: The "due South" pilot as a folktale.





	Why Wolf And Coyote Hunt Together

Wolf and Coyote are distant cousins, you know, clan-brothers as they say. But they are not very much alike. You wouldn't think that they belong together, much less live and hunt together. But they do, and this is the story of how that came about.

It was once told!

Wolf lived in the north, in the land where there is always snow. He was a handsome fellow, a brave warrior, a good hunter and tracker, very serious and sober, and like all good warriors he kept himself away from women. Because he lived in the land where it is always snow, he wore his finest white fur all the time; it helped disguise him when he was hunting game or tracking an enemy. He had learned everything about hunting and tracking from his father, Old Wolf.

But one day, while Wolf was out tracking game, he came upon the bloody body of Old Wolf in the snow. His father had been killed.

Wolf threw back his head and howled in his grief and rage. _A ya_! He saw that the tracks of the killer went south; he followed those tracks.

Along the way Wolf met Caribou. "So you are here, Brother Tuktuk," Wolf said, for there is a pact between Wolf's people and Caribou's people to keep each other strong. "My father, Old Wolf, has been killed. His killer came south, past here. Have you seen him?"

"So you are here, Brother Amarok," Caribou said. "I have seen someone pass by. He is a powerful magician. He made the river rise up and drown a whole herd of my people. Then he made the river go down, and left their dead bodies to rot. He went south."

 _A ya_! That is too much wasted meat," Wolf said. "Let the People eat your people." And the People have eaten the caribou ever since.

Wolf continued tracking the killer south. Along the way he met one of the People that lives in the north. "So you are here, Brother," Wolf said to the Person. "My father, Old Wolf, has been killed. His killer came south, past here. Caribou says he is a powerful magician who makes the rivers rise. Have you seen him?"

"So you are here, Amarok," said the Person. "I have seen someone pass by. He is an evil man. He made the river dry up, and Salmon had to go away or die."

" _Mamianar_!" said Wolf. "He is a powerful magician to make the river rise and then to dry it up." Wolf was very much afraid, because water-spirits are very powerful.

But Wolf continued tracking the killer south. He went to the very edge of the land where there is always snow.

Just then a big bird turd fell on Wolf's head. Wolf knew who had made that dropping, and he looked up. "So you are here, Raven!"

"So you are here, Wolf!" Raven cawed, and he landed before Wolf.

Raven is very old and very wise. He is a glutton and a thief and a trickster. But he is also Raven-Who-Sets-Things-Right. He changes things with his tricks and his powerful magic.

"Raven," said Wolf, "I need your magic and your tricks. My father, Old Wolf, has been killed. His killer came south, past here. Caribou says he is a powerful magician who makes the rivers rise. The People say he is a wicked man who made the river disappear and drive away Salmon. I am only one warrior against water-magic. Will you help me?"

"Ha!" Raven cawed. "Wolf, my land is this one, the land that is always snow. The killer has gone south, beyond this land. If I come with you, that wicked Owl-Woman will eat the children up here – I must stay here to fight her, and make tricks for the people of the north. I cannot go with you."

"Then I will go alone," said Wolf, though tears of fear ran down his face.

Raven laughed loudly, slapping his leg. "Heh, Wolf, you will have help! In that land south, there's a great lake. Travel along the edge of that lake until you come to a great lodge, bigger than the biggest longhouse ever built; Wind is the chief there, and the name of that lodge is Wind-Goes-Through-It. There are so many people in that big lodge that you cannot count them all. That magician will probably hide among the people in the lodge. It will be hard to find him.

"My brother lives in that lodge too, among those southern people. He is an old and powerful magician and a great trickster, like me. He is also your distant cousin. He is Old Man Coyote. Ask him for help.

"You must find Coyote in that lodge by yourself. Remind him that you two are cousins; he's lazy, but he'll do anything for his family. And take him some pemmican as a gift, he likes that.

"Be careful, Wolf," Raven concluded. "The south is dangerous, and full of cruel people. That is why I shit on your head; do not wash it off, because while it is there you cannot be harmed by anyone in the south. Good luck!" And Raven flew off, cawing.

Wolf sang a death song for Old Wolf, and begged his father's spirit for aid on his journey. Then he followed the magician's tracks past the edge of his country, and was in the land of the south.

Wolf traveled south for many days, following the tracks. He saw many new things in this strange land that amazed him. For the first time he walked on stones and dirt instead of snow; it hurt his paws.The heat was dreadful on his white fur; Wolf molted in patches and was no longer the handsome fellow he had been in the north. The animals and people here were different from the ones he had known in the north; they moved differently and spoke differently. For their part the creatures in the south derided Wolf and laughed at him, because he had a big bird-turd on his head; they called that great warrior Shit-head. Wolf held his tongue and kept walking, though his proud heart was angry at their laughter.

Wolf came to the great lake, and followed the shore south until he saw the giant lodge. The lodge Wind-Goes-Through-It was so big that it took Wolf three days of walking to reach it from the time he had first seen it.

When Wolf entered Wind-Goes-Through-It, it was as big and full of people as Raven had said. Even when the flap was closed, a wild wind blew through the lodge, blowing the people this way and that. Wolf was dazed by all the people there, more people than he had ever seen in his entire life, and even a little frightened by them all. But Old Wolf's killer was here. So Wolf walked into Wind-Goes-Through-It, and walked among those people.

Everywhere he went, Wolf asked people where to find Coyote. Most of them turned away, or laughed at him, or threatened him. But one fellow grinned and said, "Oh, yes! He is that one sleeping under the chief's bed. But when you go to him, use his personal name, Asshole. He will be very honored!" When Wolf thanked him and went away, that fellow laughed at his joke.

Wolf had lived among the people of the North, who said what they meant. So when he came to the dozing Coyote curled up under the chief's headboard, he said in his politest voice, "So you are here, Asshole!"

Well, that woke Coyote up, I can tell you. He jumped at Wolf, yowling and cursing like an old woman, and the startled Wolf found himself fighting Coyote. Many in the lodge stopped to watch the fight, laughing and shouting.

Wolf was bigger and stronger than Old Man Coyote, and because of Raven's shit on his head he could not be hurt by his opponent. Very soon he had Coyote flattened under his paws. But during the fight Coyote had pulled some red and orange flowers from the ground and stuck them between Wolf's toes. So when he was pinned Coyote yelped, "Ai aiai! Your paws are on fire!"

When Wolf saw the bright orange gouts from his paws he yelled and snatched them away, rolling to put them out. Coyote jumped on top of him, pinning him. He laughed, flashing his white teeth. "Hey, that's a good trick, eh?" Then Wolf saw that the flames were only flowers.

Others in the lodge laughed. But Old Man Coyote glared down at Wolf. He was smaller and scrawnier than Wolf, he had a longer nose and his eyes were yellow. "Who the hell are you, Shit-head? And why did you call me Asshole, when that's the name I hate most?" 

That was when Wolf knew he had been tricked. Shame filled him for insulting the only person who could help him. He looked Coyote in the face. "I am Wolf. I was looking for you, because I needed your tricks to help me find the person who killed my father, Old Wolf."

"Wolf? Old Wolf?" Coyote grinned. "Snow-eaters from the north!" He let Wolf get up. "Why do you need my help?"

Wolf told Coyote of how the wicked magician had come to Wind-Goes-Through-It, and the advice Raven had given. "That wicked magician is in this lodge," Wolf said. "He killed my father. I need your tricks and powerful magic to defeat him."

"You called me Asshole," Coyote snapped, and turned his back on Wolf. "I don't like you."

"We are cousins, you and I," Wolf said, "members of the same clan. I was told that you would do anything for your family."

"That's a big lie," Coyote yawned, lying down to sleep under the chief's own bed again. "Go away, snow-eater."

"I have pemmican for you," Wolf said.

Coyote jumped to his feet and faced Wolf. "Pemmican? You have pemmican for me?"

Wolf pulled the pemmican from his pack and offered it to Coyote, who gobbled it up in seconds.

"That's better, clan-brother!" Coyote said in a friendly voice, and flashed a yellow, ugly grin. "Now let's go find that magician who killed your father and feed him his nuts!"

Well, that's Coyote for you.

But when they went out looking for the magician, it was hard to move. The fierce Wind, who was in fact the chief of this mighty lodge, blew them this way and that, tumbling them against other people or rolling them along. "Wind blows us every way he wants us to!" Coyote yelled to his clan-brother over the noise and the shouting of angry people they blew into. Coyote yelled into the wind, "Hey, Big-Fart, leave us alone and let us find this evil person in peace!"

"That's no way to talk to a chief!" Wolf yelled.

"Wind only understands that kind of talk, snow-eater!" Coyote yelled right back. "You heard me, Swamp-Gas, let us alone!"

Wolf's father, Old Wolf, had raised his son to be mindful of elders and respectful to chieftains, and in fact to be even more respectful before chieftains he did not like.

"Old and respected Father," Wolf called loudly into the shrieking Wind. "I bring greetings from the north. I beg leave to look for one who is living in your mighty lodge!"

At that, mighty Wind ceased, and Wolf and Coyote stumbled as they found safe footing on the ground.

Coyote stared and looked around in disbelief.

"Thank you kindly, mighty Wind," Wolf responded politely. "This person is an evil magician who killed my father, Old Wolf. He would have entered the lodge not a moon ago. If you could show me where he lives now I would be honored by your attention, and grateful."

Instantly both Wolf and Coyote were caught up in a swirling gust of wind and carried off. "Wind will dash us against the lodgepoles!"Coyote yelped. "Why did you speak to him that way!"

Wind carried Wolf and Coyote far and fast over the vast lodge, past many dens and holes and dwellings within the lodge for the people who lived there. The Wind blew them west, and set them down near a big burrow. Coyote blinked and looked around them, amazed.

"This must be where he lives," said Wolf quietly. He looked down into the hole, where the magician might be waiting for them with weapons, and his hand tightened on his spear. "Let us go in, clan-brother."

"I've got a better idea," said Coyote, and he lifted his leg and pissed into the hole.

The magician rose up out of the hole, roaring. He looked like a Person, one of the People of the north, but he was dressed like a person of the south. He was a handsome man, with a thick black line of eyebrows.

Wolf threw his spear with a loud yell. But the spear went right through the magician's body as if he was made of smoke. Coyote fired an arrow, and it went through the same way, without leaving a wound or shedding any blood.

The magician clapped his hands and roared again.

Water rose up from the ground, so quickly that Wolf and Coyote were inundated at once. Coyote yelled and spit water and fired his arrows, but they went wild because his bowstring was wet. Wolf tried to catch hold of the magician, standing on the water, but he could not touch him. The water washed Coyote and Wolf far away from the magician, who was out of sight in seconds.

When the two bedraggled hunters pulled themselves onto dry land,they were surrounded by angry lodge people, whose dens or burrows orlodges had been flooded by the water-magic. They hounded Coyote back to his den -- and Wolf they chased all the way out of Wind-Goes-Through-It.

Wolf stood alone at the edge of the great lake, friendless and afraid. All he had with him was a fishline and his knife. So he sat and fished, and tried to think past his fear of the wicked magician who could not be killed with weapons. Soon he had a big pile of fish, but no ideas. He was afraid to go back into the lodge, and he knew he could not face that magician alone.

"Clan-brother, are you going to eat all those fish yourself?"

Wolf looked up, startled. Coyote was there, flashing his ugly, friendly grin at Wolf.

Coyote sat beside Wolf and gobbled one of the biggest salmon from the pile without asking. "This is going to be tougher than I thought. I thought that bird-shit protected you?"

"Raven said it was to protect me from the people of the south," Wolf said. "This magician is from the north. He can kill me. Clan-brother, you still wish to fight that magician?" Wolf asked, startled. This sneaking cousin of his was braver than he seemed.

"Phew!" Coyote shook the water from his coat, spraying Wolf. "That wicked fellow knows water-magic. Well, I can make magic too."

So Coyote stood and arched his back, and he shit. Wolf blinked. Coyote winked at him. "Belly-magic. Never seen it before, have you?"Coyote turned around and faced his turds. "Hey, siblings, I need your advice! This magician knows water-magic. He's made of smoke - weapons go right through him. How do Wolf and I kill him?"

"This magician can change his shape, Elder Brother," squeaked one of the turds. Wolf stared, fascinated.

"That's why your weapons did not work," sighed another turd.

"Make him change into his true shape," growled the third turd.

"Tire him, or trick him," whispered the fourth turd.

"Then you can kill him," muttered the fifth and last turd.

Coyote kicked the turds apart. "Trick him. That's what we'll do,then!" Coyote left his feces behind and sniffed around the pile of fish. "I can't kill, clan-brother; but I can make tricks."

"I can kill," Wolf said, and tightened his grip on his knife.

"Then we are a good team." Coyote then disguised himself and Wolf as pretty young women, and they collected the fish into their baskets. "Let's find him again. When he forms his true shape, strike hard and fast! Now do as I do, clan-brother."

Chattering and laughing like any young women going to market, the disguised Wolf and Coyote re-entered Wind-Goes-Through-It. Wolf again asked Wind in his most respectful tones if he would blow them to the magician again. They saw him outside his den, mending arrows. This time instead of attacking the two walked up to him. Coyote called in a soft voice, "What a handsome man! What a brave-looking warrior! I hope such a one is not married yet!"

The magician looked at them, handsome and level-eyed; then he smiled at seeing such pretty girls fawning over him. He stood and strutted a bit, and the two disguised girls went closer as if awed.

"We have fine fish to show you," Coyote cooed, hoisting one out of the basket. "Are you hungry? Wouldn't you like something to eat?"

Coyote giggled and flirted like any young woman with a handsome young man. Wolf had never disguised himself before, so he only looked and smiled and whispered with Coyote as if he was a shy young girl as they offered the fish in their baskets to the magician.

"I've even heard that you can do some little magics," Coyote said, as if amazed. "So handsome and brave - and clever too, isn't he,sister?"

"Very clever," Wolf managed to say.

The magician puffed out his chest. "I can change my shape," he said proudly, and turned into Bear. Then Bear became Elk, then Eagle,then Raccoon before he became the handsome man again.

"Oh, how wonderful," gushed Coyote, giggling. "I wish we could give you something worthy of such splendid magic - Oh, but we do have something!" Coyote reached into his basket and pulled out a fish, a salmon. "This is a magic fish, the best of fishes! My grandmother, a powerful woman, gave it to me. She said that if you eat this fish while in your true shape, you can never be hurt by any weapons, ever! What an invincible warrior you would be if that were true!"

Wolf smiled and giggled, and fingered his knife under his shawl.

The magician smiled and chucked Coyote under the chin. "Such a pretty girl, and with such a fine gift!" he said. "Well, I will show you my true shape, then." He shifted again. His body formed and shaped, and solidified.

Wolf's knife was ready.

The magician formed his true shape. He was a white wolf with a black bar across his forehead like a tattoo.

Wolf did not strike the blow. His body was frozen with horror. His hand was like ice around his knife-hilt.

The magician was Wolf's uncle. Old Wolf had been killed by his own brother.

And at that moment, while Wolf was paralyzed with horror, the wolf-magician stared at both of them and saw who they really were. With a roar of rage he struck Coyote a mighty blow that felled him.

Wolf stared at the crumpled Coyote, his tongue lolling, blood running from his mouth, his glazed staring eyes. Coyote was dead, his neck broken.

Wolf looked into his uncle's pitiless eyes before he shifted back into the handsome Person of smoke, and he bolted in terror and grief.

The river rose around Wolf, trying to drown him, rising so hard and high that the Raven-turd on Wolf's head was washed off. Wolf was drowning, strong swimmer that he was. "Wind, great chief," he gasped as the water rose even higher, "please carry me outside!"

And Wind heard the polite stranger, and blew him out the door with all the flooded water, and left Wolf there, wet and exhausted.

Wolf wept for a long time, grief-stricken for the loss of the wild, friendly clan-brother who had been killed helping him. When he was exhausted with weeping he shook with terror at realizing that his Uncle Wolf was the wicked magician who had killed his father and would not hesitate to kill him as well. For a while his terror and grief were so great Wolf even thought of running, going as far away as he could, back to the north and the snow and hiding from his uncle. But then he remembered how brave Old Wolf had been, and how shamed he would be if his son was a coward in the face of his own death. Wolf grimly resolved that he would die trying to kill Uncle Wolf.

Wolf slept by the shore of the great lake, wet and cold, and awoke cold with sorrow and fear. He had no weapons at all now. But he strode back to the doorflap of Wind-Goes-Through-It, and boldly entered the lodge, prepared to find his uncle.

And there, in the doorway, was Old Man Coyote. "Ho, cousin, I was just coming to find you!" he said, grinning.

Wolf stared at the living Coyote, almost sick with fear. He was sure he was seeing a ghost.

Coyote cuffed him on the side of his head, and that felt too real to be disbelieved! "Shit-head, didn't you know about my magic? I am Old Man Coyote! I get killed all the time. All you have to do is step over my body five times and I come back to life! Didn't I tell you that?"

"No!" Wolf said, still dazed. But now a little thread of happiness was laced with his fear.

"Oh. Well, it must have slipped my mind," Coyote said. "Fox found me and brought me back, so now I have to share any carrion I find with that little thief from now on." He snuffed about Wolf. "Any more pemmican, clan-brother?"

"No," Wolf said. "I have nothing, no weapons or food."

Coyote eyed Wolf. "And yet you were coming back inside to find that magician?"

"Clan-brother, that evil magician is my uncle. He killed his own brother, Old Wolf. He drowned Caribou's people. He dried up the river and drove away Salmon. He killed you, my cousin, and he wants to kill me too. I must try to kill him, even though I must die doing so."

"Heh, cousin, don't howl over yourself yet," Coyote said cheerily,and sat to scratch his fleas. "Come. Sit down and scratch. It helps me think."

So Wolf sat and scratched at his own fleas with his cousin Coyote. It was a very undignified thing for the warrior to do, but it was also soothing, and he began to calm down and think. But all Wolf could think about was fighting Uncle Wolf.

"Now," Coyote murmured, scratching with his left hind foot, "we must make him change into his true shape if we are to kill him." He scratched with his right hind foot. "My little shits said we had to tire him or trick him to make him change into his true shape. We tried tricking him and it didn't work. Let's try tiring him." He sprang to his feet.

Wolf shrugged in despair. "Brother Coyote, this magician makes rivers rise and fall. How can we tire such a one out?"

Coyote grinned. "With another trick." He yelled, "Hey, Wind! Take me to my family!"

The wind buffeted Coyote and Wolf back and forth.

Coyote rolled his eyes and shrugged his skinny shoulders."Please, Wind," he coaxed. "If you could please carry me back to my family I would greatly appreciate it."

At once Wind picked up both Wolf and Coyote and whisked them to Coyote's den in a short time, a cave built into a stone slope within the lodge. "Thank you kindly!" Coyote barked into the Wind, then turned into the den. "Hey, I am here!"

For Wolf, it was as if he had stepped into a pit swarming full of Coyotes, all yelping and yammering at once at the top of their lungs. Coyote yelled and yammered back at everybody, cuffing snouts, sniffing tails, grappling with his mouth at another muzzle. Later on Wolf would sort them all out as Coyote's mother Dam Coyote, his harried and bad-tempered wife Coyote-woman, his grown brothers and sisters, and all the yipping tumbling balls of fluff that were Coyote's many pups. Wolf, jostled this way and that by all the bodies, was dazed to see so many mouths to feed, and understood why his clan-brother looked so scrawny and skinny.

Old Man Coyote grinned at Wolf proudly. "Heh, brother, you didn't think you'd joined such a big litter, did you?" he shouted over the din. "I need them for the plan!"

When everyone was finally quiet and calm, with only a few bitten muzzles here and there, Coyote told everyone his plan. His entire family agreed, for the magician had killed Coyote once already and had therefore made enemies with the entire clan of Coyote.

At a polite request from Coyote, Wind picked up Wolf and the entire Coyote brood and dropped them halfway around that great lake, three days' travel from Wind-Goes-Through-It.

Wolf sat there by the edge of the lake where the very tip of the giant lodge could just be seen from that distance. He was now furnished with another knife taken from one of Coyote's protesting brothers.

"This time, cousin," Coyote said grimly, and his yellow eyes glowed with anger, "strike to kill."

Wolf nodded. But he looked at that immense brood of Coyotes; even the pups had come outside. "You shouldn't get your pups involved, cousin. It's very dangerous."

"They're coyotes," Coyote said proudly, nipping a stringy pup-tail. "They get killed all the time. We'll just step over them five times, won't we!" And the pups yelped and jumped in agreement.

Wolf saw that Raven had been very wise to pair him with this trickster.

"And now, a little more magic!" Coyote said merrily. "Into your disguises, all of you!"

Well, they were all Coyotes, with his gift for tricks and disguising their forms. Before Wolf's astonished eyes every single Coyote, down to the smallest pup, changed themselves to look like Wolf - right to his patchy, molting white fur. They all walked away from Wolf, back toward the lodge.

It took three days to return to Wind-Goes-Through-It. And at long intervals Coyote stationed a member of his family at a place on the shore, hiding. That long line of disguised Coyotes eventually became Coyote and two littermates that entered the lodge. Coyote stationed his brother and sister within the lodge itself, between the entrance and the magician's den.

Finally the only one left was Coyote himself, also disguised to look like the patchy-furred Wolf. He trotted the last distance right to the magician's den again. "Hey, Uncle, eat my shit!" he yelled, and pissed down the hole again.

The magician, Wolf's uncle who was still disguised as a Person, rose up roaring again. He began to raise his arms to call the water.

"Coward!" Coyote chanted, dancing around the smoke-bodied magician. "Spell-sayer! You make the water rise because you're too cowardly to kill me with your bare hands, Uncle! You didn't kill my father, you paid Owl-woman to kill him so he wouldn't know what a coward you are!"

At that insult, the magician gave a roar of fury. He took up a lance and threw it at Coyote, who neatly danced out of its way,laughing and mocking. "Water-pisser! Water-pisser!" He turned and trotted away. "Go on, uncle! Show these great people what a coward you are by making the river rise again!"

The magician drew a long knife and chased Coyote, furious.

This was what Coyote wanted, of course, and at that he ran flat-out for his life. The magician ran like Wind, getting closer and closer to the tiring Coyote. Coyote reached the place where one of his disguised sisters was hidden and dropped out of sight behind a rock; she rose up, looking like Wolf, and ran at her top speed. The magician followed her at his Wind-like run, thinking she was Wolf and would soon surely become too tired to run any more.

But the disguised Coyotes ran like the Wind themselves, one by one, leading the furious, fleet-footed magician on a race like none seen before, each one ducking down as they reached the next Coyote-Wolf in line and that next one taking up the chase, as fresh as ever. In this way the Coyotes led the wicked, furious magician on a chase out of the lodge and along the shore, running and running instead of using his magic. Coyote had gotten him so angry he'd forgotten to think - and a magician who forgets to think is dangerous to himself.

From pup to pup to dam to wife to brother to sister to pup the Coyotes led the magician a furious pace, for three days and three nights of nonstop running. And as the third day's sun sank in the west the magician, stumbling and sweating, staggered, gasping, even as the last Coyote ducked out of sight, at the very place on the shore where the real Wolf waited with his knife ready; it was the real Wolf who dashed before the magician now, at top speed.

"Help me!" the magician gasped. "My friend, slow him down!"

At that, out from behind the trees waddled fat Porcupine. He was far different from the way porcupines are now - this fellow was a disagreeable and sneaky creature, whose quills were poison-tipped and which could be thrown. He threw a whole tailful of his poison quills at Wolf, who gave a cry of pain and fell to the ground, pierced all along his side by the darts. Raven's shit was gone from his head; now Wolf could be hurt and killed by people in the south.

Sick with the pain and poison, Wolf gripped his knife and lifted his head as the magician stumbled and fell to his knees near Wolf. And as he did his Person shape began to blur and shift; he was too tired to keep his magical disguise any more.

"You killed Old Wolf," Wolf gasped, shaking, wanting only to strike cleanly before he died. "You are a wicked magician. You must die, Uncle."

The shifting, blurring Person gasped, "My brother tried to stop me from using my magic; I killed him. Kill me, Nephew, and you will never be able to go back home again!" And just at that moment, the exhausted magician faded and shifted into his true shape of the white wolf.

This time Wolf did not hesitate - he struck true with his knife and killed his uncle with one blow.

A good number of Coyote's family trotted up to him. Some of them yelled and chased the cowardly Porcupine into the woods. Others began to pull the quills from Wolf's sides. Dam Coyote, Coyote's mother, licked the quill's wounds, and as she did so they closed, and the poison faded; Wolf's head cleared and his sickness and pain went away. Dam Coyote was a gifted healer.

"That was a good blow, clan-brother," Coyote's brother gasped, his sides heaving; he'd been the last in line and was still very tired from his mad dash. "Now give me back my knife!"

"My work in the south is done," Wolf said after he had done so. Weary and footsore from that run around the shore, he slung the dead body of his uncle over his back. "I must return at once and show that the wicked magician is dead. I am grateful to all of you." With that Wolf began trudging back north, this time carrying his dead uncle.

Days later Wolf entered the land where it is always snow, and the next day he walked into the council of animals. He dropped the body of the wicked magician in the snow. "The one who drowned Caribou and exiled Salmon and killed Old Wolf is dead," he said. "I killed him."

But instead of acclaiming Wolf for destroying this dangerous magician, all the other creatures, even the other wolves, rushed at the startled Wolf with their weapons shouting, "You have killed your own uncle!" It was that wicked magician's last magic that had come true.

Those animals would have killed Wolf if he had not run as fast as he could away from them. Wolf fled for the border between the north and south. His fellow wolves chased him, shouting, "If you ever come back here among us, we will kill you!"

Sick at heart, Wolf realized that he was now cursed to wander without a home, far from the land of snow he had loved. With tears in his eyes, Wolf crossed the border and re-entered the land of the south, prepared to live alone in exile for the rest of his life.

But to his surprise, Old Man Coyote was there, waiting for him.

"Ho ya, I don't think you should go back there, clan-brother," Coyote said, and nipped Wolf's muzzle in a friendly fashion. "Let's go back to Wind-Goes-Through-It!"

"Clan-brother, you are giving me a place in your den?" Wolf asked, amazed.

Coyote laughed. "With the way my brood eats and the way you hunt, I'd be a fool not to! We'll eat a nice tender Porcupine together."

"Porcupine?" Wolf said.

"I fixed him good, too," Coyote grinned nastily. "Stupid quill-pig forgot about _my_ magic. His kind won't be able to throw their quills any more, and I took the poison away too. Come home with me, cousin. You'd better hunt with me from now on. With your skill at weapons and my tricks, we will be unbeatable!"

The angry wolves in the snow shouted at Wolf to leave.

Coyote laughed at them rudely, then he cocked his leg and pissed in their direction. 

Wolf laughed for the first time since his father's death. He and Coyote trotted south, back to Wind-Goes-Through-It.

And Wolf and Coyote have hunted together ever since.


End file.
